New York SBDC Research Network

From Eater : It’s hard to believe, but before 1994, grocery stores did not sell packaged rotisserie chickens. Boston Market is credited with convincing consumers to pay for one of the easiest meals to make at home, in the early 1990s, and that’s when grocery stores saw an opening, according to a new Wall Street Journal report. Last year, Americans bought 625 million rotisserie chickens at supermarkets; Costco alone sold 87 million, according to the Journal, 36 million more than they did in 2010. Today, practically every major publication, from Bon Appetit to Buzzfeed, has published a list of ways to most efficiently transform a grocery store-roasted chicken into several meals. The pre-roasted birds, packaged in plastic or paper and sitting beneath heat lamps at national chains like Kroger and Costco, might be flavored with garlic and lemon or barbecue spices. In addition to the convenience, the smell is a draw, as the Journal points out. It’s enough to get people into the store i

From The World Economic Forum : Ten years on from the global financial crisis, the prospects for a sustained economic recovery remain at risk due to a widespread failure on the part of leaders and policy-makers to put in place reforms necessary to underpin competitiveness and bring about much-needed increases in productivity, according to data from the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2017-2018 . The Global Competitiveness Index 2017-2018 presents a framework and a corresponding set of indicators in three principal categories (subindexes) and twelve policy domains (pillars) for 137 economies. Drawing on data going back 10 years, the report highlights in particular three areas of greatest concern. These include the financial system, where levels of “soundness” have yet to recover from the shock of 2007 and in some parts of the world are declining further. This is especially of concern given the important role the financial system will need to play in facilitati

Each year the  New York Small Business Development Center  recognizes outstanding small businesses in a variety of ways.  This Success Story from the  Queens-LaGuardia SBDC  appears in our  2016 Annual Report .  Tony Yang   GIG Computers, Inc. Queens-LaGuardia SBDC Tony Yang started Gig Computers, Inc. from his dorm room while attending the University at Albany in 1995. Gig provides premium IT consulting service in upstate New York, including computer networking, VOIP phone systems, and data center solutions. He initially applied for a loan with NYBDC, who referred Tony to the LaGuardia SBDC for assistance with the financial projections. Business Advisor Rosa Figueroa prepared the financial projections that helped Tony obtain a $150,000 SBA guarantee loan to purchase equipment and expand the business to NYC. The loan enabled Tony to create four jobs and save six others.  The challenge was to secure a location for Gig Computers at a reasonable price. Rosa suggested NYDesigns,

From Disability Scoop : Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he’s rescinding more than two dozen guidance documents including several clarifying the implications of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Among the 25 revoked documents are a number of ADA-related items dating as far back as 1995 offering guidance on everything from service animals to accessible building practices as well as a 2016 letter on employment of people with disabilities... Disability advocates indicated they are particularly worried about the U.S. Department of Justice’s decision to pull a statement issued under the Obama administration addressing the implications of the ADA’s integration mandate on employment. “The civil rights of persons with disabilities, including individuals with mental illness, intellectual or developmental disabilities, or physical disabilities, are violated by unnecessary segregation in a wide variety of settings, including in segregated employment, vocational and day programs,” the

From Marketing Profs : What does it mean to be human (and a marketer) in a world where even the most creative and intuitive endeavors are being turned into automated, optimized, and streamlined processes? With the onslaught of stories about the launch of new, fantastic pieces of software or technological advancements that'll make life simpler and computers able to make essential data connections, it seems that we're quickly entering a full-blown "Artificial Intelligence Age." At the root of AI are perception and cognition, which also happen to be two of the fundamental tenets of the marketing industry. It's no surprise, then, that software, algorithms, and AI applications are consistently used to help marketers and make their job of "adaptive persuasion" more effective and efficient. Far from being a substitute for the creative process, though, data is empowerment. By offering deeper and more comprehensive consumer insights, data fuels curiosity

From ThomasNet : Currently, the industrial and commercial labor worlds are facing an unprecedented rate of rapid change. New technologies are becoming old-news almost as soon as they hit the marketplace, social attitudes fluctuate with the share of a Tweet, and government policies struggle to keep up with high tech developments. All of this adds up to the inability to predict how the workforce will evolve over the course of the next decade. With the future so uncertain, how can companies and individuals continue to maintain relevance? According to a report compiled by PwC , a global industry-focused service provider and consulting company, keeping up with the unknown realities of tomorrow means reshaping the traditional business conventions of today into flexible practices that can adapt and vacillate with the changing tides. The report’s conclusions are derived from the findings of a research project that began in 2007 and are based on the collected surveys from 10,000 people in

From Bplans : If you’re planning to use your personal savings to launch a new business, you’ll be happy to hear that many of the costs you’ll incur are tax deductible. Business startup expenses are categorized differently from standard business expenses. Distinguishing between the two depends on when the cost is incurred. In the eyes of the IRS, you are technically in “startup phase” until you open up your doors for business, or until you start earning income from the business—whichever comes first. Your costs during this period are categorized as startup costs. Once you have launched or made your first sale, costs are categorized as business expenses. However, not everything can be claimed as a startup expense during the startup phase.

Each year the  New York Small Business Development Center  recognizes outstanding small businesses in a variety of ways.  This Success Story from the  Farmingdale SBDC  appears in our  2016 Annual Report .  Michael D'Antoni Versa-Tel T.S., Inc.   Farmingdale SBDC Retiring from the U.S. Air Force in 2004 with more than 20 years of honorable service, Technical Sergeant Michael D’Antoni has stated that with his military experience; “there is no telecommunication or fiber optics scenario he can’t handle.” Today, the owner of Versa-Tel T.S. Incorporated, a leader in telecommunications, boasts a successful history for performing installations across Long Island to include Long Island MacArthur Airport, US Armed Forces Command Center in Amityville, NYS INFORM traffic control signal / information systems, Theodore Roosevelt Executive Building in Nassau County, SUNY Stony Brook MART/Tower, SUNY Farmingdale as well as public schools, libraries, and other large-scale data and voice

From LinkedIn : My boss made a mistake on a project we were working on and instead of owning his mistake, he said it was my fault. I sat through that meeting feeling shocked and disappointed. Although this happened a couple of years ago. I remember the details quite well. When we left the meeting he told me, "You are a good sport.” I knew I needed to start planning my exit strategy. I loved my job but I couldn’t trust my boss. He would throw you under the bus in a heartbeat to make himself look good. In spite of how good a job is, once you don’t have a manager that has your back, you will be miserable in that job. A bad manager can take a good staff and destroy it, causing the best employees to flee and the remainder to lose all motivation. People don't leave bad jobs, They leave bad bosses.

From xkcd : This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.

From MarketingProfs : Video plays an important role in driving consumers' purchase decisions: 79% of consumers say they would be willing to spend more money on a product after they watch a social media influencer's video about it, gen.video has found. So using your YouTube channel could be a perfect option for you to drive sales. At the same time, you may face some challenges in converting your subscribers into customers. In this article, you're going to learn three ways to turn YouTube subscribers into valuable customers. However, you still need to keep the basics in mind, such as adding a clear call to action at the end of the video, prompting subscribers to take the desired action. You should also include easy access to a relevant landing page to drive conversions. You could embed the link in the form of a button at the end of the video.

From Startups and venture capital : I recently read a story here titled "We fired our top talent. Best decision we ever made..." Let's dissect this because there is so much more than meets the eye here. Presumably, if you have read the story, you understand that the author describes a problem worker that he has dubbed “Rick”. Rick is the local genius with a ton of domain knowledge about their product and a member of the core development staff for this product... Personally, I'm of the opinion that if you find these people and you are in the process of interviewing them, regardless of whatever modicum of talent they have, they aren't worth your time because of the loss of morale and teamwork they bring to the team. This is actually something brought up in the story itself — about how Rick ignored team meetings and belittled his co-workers. About how after Rick left, productivity soared and they managed to pull together to save the day! The author does this to

From MarketingProfs : For marketers, a mindset that puts the customer first is critical to competitive success. That's something marketers know. Yet, during day-to-day execution, that customer-centric mentality tends to get pushed aside, more so in Marketing than in other, client-facing parts of the business, such as Sales and Customer Support. It happens easily, even to the best of us. With so much going on in our pipelines at any one moment—from lead gen campaigns, events, new product launches, and more—marketers can't help but get caught up in the weeds of project execution. We run fast, focusing on what needs to get done now; in those moments, the customer-centric mindset is important, but not mission-critical. Or so it seems. The truth is that a customer-centric mindset is necessary for our marketing to be successful. It helps campaigns resonate with prospects and customers, leading to more sales and enhanced client satisfaction and engagement. Those results benefi

From Medium : Have you ever made a decision that seemed illogical looking back? We’re all highly illogical beings even though we think the opposite! Every person creates their own social reality. The way you view the world is completely subjective because we all have cognitive biases. The concept of cognitive biases was introduced in 1972 by two psychologists, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. A cognitive bias is a systematic thinking error that impacts judgments, and therefore, our decisions. As of this writing, there are 106 decision-making related cognitive biases known! We all make these errors. So there’s no point in trying to become a perfect thinker. It’s impossible. However, with practice, you can avoid some thinking mistakes that many of us make. And by avoiding these errors, we can improve our decisions, and consequently: Our lives and careers.

From  BizFilings Managing the employees in your workplace effectively necessitates that even the smallest of businesses set up work rules. Work rules protect your business and your workers and if correctly implemented and executed, create and maintain a better work environment for all.  Having formal work rules in your business, even if they're not required, are a good idea because they can help you protect your business from litigation and maintain a high quality of work life for your employees. You need to make sure that your employees understand what is expected of them, not only in the work that they do, but in their behavior and in other areas of your employment relationship. If the rules are carefully selected, clearly related to the business, and fairly enforced, they can help you to better manage your workplace and your workers.